It seems clear that Trump, a billionaire who has never lived the life of the Average American, is woefully under-educated on the American healthcare system. And yet his ignorance was made even more transparent this week during a New York Times interview when he attempted to explain what a regular American faces when dealing with health insurance.
Speaking with NYT Reporter Maggie Habermann, Trump fielded questions about his own personal goals for the Obamacare replacement in light of the Republican Senate’s latest failure to hold a vote on their bill.
Trump seemed to respond in the affirmative when asking whether he wanted to provide all Americans with coverage, but in explaining his stance, seemed to show a complete ignorance about how much health insurance costs, and how it functions on a day-to-day basis for the average American.
Stuck on the fact that the President, Healthcare Business Genius, thinks health insurance is… a 401(k)? Or what pic.twitter.com/M3tFIrpXPD
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) July 20, 2017
This quote from the President is notable for two reasons:
He apparently believes that health insurance costs a regular American $12 a year? $12 a year? Does he seriously think that’s what people are protesting in their Senators offices for, is that why he thinks Obamacare is so evil, for $12?! In case you are as ignorant as our dear president, the average American pays around $89 a month for health insurance premiums, which translates into over $1,000 a year, and that’s without an additional benefits or coverage of dependents. That also doesn’t include out-of-pocket expenses, which cost Americans around $1,300 yearly.
The second most significant portion of Trump’s statement on healthcare is that he seems to be confusing the process of health insurance with some sort of 401(k) – that is, a system where one pays into it for many decades and receives a nice big payout once they turn 70. The reality is that any money paid into the health insurance market today is like rent or any other payment – it pays for current services and doesn’t contribute in any way toward future gains.
I get it. The president isn’t a ‘politician,’ he’s a businessman, but can we really excuse his monumental ignorance when it is clearly affecting the way he views the biggest political issue in America today? We are talking about true, life or death situations for millions of Americans and Trump thinks it is just pocket change.
